Anonymous wrote:I remember a coworker named his daughter Kendall and it was obvious that he had picked it out. He was the kind of guy who badly wanted a son.
I have two boys with the same names as Frasier characters which my husband didn't figure out until he finally saw the show last year.

Don't tell me his name was Ken?! That's horrible if he did that, and his daughter will get that as she becomes older.

Anonymous wrote:Curious if you ever hear a kid's name and think, “Yup, the mom won that one.”

In your family, who won the "Name This Baby" game? You? Your spouse? Your MIL? Their big brother? Or was it a totally egalitarian decision? Is everyone happy with the outcome, or is someone still secretly simmering away in anger that Oliver isn't Maverick?

We have one kid (trying for a second now). We did not find out the sex before birth. DH had one boy name that he felt very strongly about, that I also liked. I had one girl name that I felt very strongly about, that he also liked. We batted around middle names until both were satisfied with the options. Felt pretty egalitarian.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you know the mom won, vs. the dad? (Not including Juniors and III etc.) Does Mom = weird name? That seems unnecessarily sexist.

OP here. I know it's unnecessarily sexist, but I can't help myself. It just pops into my head whenever someone introduces kids. For example:
Annabel (mom)
Jordan the girl (dad)
Gerald (the in-laws)
Moana (3-year old Annabel).

I have synesthesia for the origins of names. Does anybody else?

LOL.

I would say we collaborated. We have two boys and a girl. Every time, we went in with a short list of boys' names, all pretty classic. With one, we picked a combo we had talked about many times and was a strong contender for both of us, though not the favorite. With our second, my DH told me at the last minute that his name was his favorite from our list, so we went with it. Our daughter's name is a family name that we both loved. We had girl backup names, but never needed to dip into them. All three have fairly classic first names and slightly unusual middle names. We didn't do that by design, just worked out that way, and I like it.

Anonymous wrote:We picked names jointly (we have twins). We had two long car rides when we were expecting and we threw a bunch of names onto a list, ones that we each picked and then we went through and added names we both thought were okay from the SSA names lists. On the car ride, we went and culled the list down to about 40 names. I printed out two copies and we each labeled the names with A (really like), B (I'd be happy with this choice, but not my first choice), and C (it's an okay name, but I really rather not). We had four names that were double-A's. About a week before they came, we actually picked two of those four names and that's what we named them. We both love both names. And what's better, the kids love their names, everyone is happy.

Same, also with twins. Why would anyone let a grandparent name their child?!? And why would a parent pick a name the other parent didn't like?

Anonymous wrote:Kids got my husband's last name, so I pulled together a list of first names and we jointly chose one that we liked.

This

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won on the first two girls. He won on the third and that's why you have a fourth Isabella in your child's class. I basically hate her name.

WTH? Isabella isn't actually that common, PP. You need to chill out.

I don’t need to chill out. I can’t stand the name. I’m allowed to have an opinion.

I think you are entitled to your opinion but also that you need to chill out. It's a pretty name with lots of nickname potential. You named two of your kids. I think for your sake and your kids sake, you need to find a way to chill out about this.

What exactly do you think I need to DO to “chill out”? Like, list the steps I need to take. Because so far, in over ten years all I’ve done is answer a question on Dcum about names, anonymously. What is “lots of nickname potential “ to you? I’ve only ever heard Isabellas get called Izzy or Bella as nicknames and two is not “lots”.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won on the first two girls. He won on the third and that's why you have a fourth Isabella in your child's class. I basically hate her name.

WTH? Isabella isn't actually that common, PP. You need to chill out.

I don’t need to chill out. I can’t stand the name. I’m allowed to have an opinion.

NP. Isabella has been in the top 10 for YEARS.

To answer the OP, my DH "won" on our second son. He was right, but...I was NOT HAPPY at the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won on the first two girls. He won on the third and that's why you have a fourth Isabella in your child's class. I basically hate her name.

WTH? Isabella isn't actually that common, PP. You need to chill out.

I don’t need to chill out. I can’t stand the name. I’m allowed to have an opinion.

I think you are entitled to your opinion but also that you need to chill out. It's a pretty name with lots of nickname potential. You named two of your kids. I think for your sake and your kids sake, you need to find a way to chill out about this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would you know the mom won, vs. the dad? (Not including Juniors and III etc.) Does Mom = weird name? That seems unnecessarily sexist.

OP here. I know it's unnecessarily sexist, but I can't help myself. It just pops into my head whenever someone introduces kids. For example:
Annabel (mom)
Jordan the girl (dad)
Gerald (the in-laws)
Moana (3-year old Annabel).

I have synesthesia for the origins of names. Does anybody else?

That's not what synesthesia means, unless "original's of names" is a 6th sense.

But no, because I think that assumes other people's family's work exactly the way you think, and they often don't. You might hear Gerald and think "oh it's the in-laws" but in reality the DW wanted to name her child after her recently deceased father or grandfather. I know plenty of men you love really feminine, elaborate names like Annabel whereas their wives would argue in favor of something a little more unisex or simple. And vice versa -- I actually love slightly more masculine names for girls (like I love a Sam/Samantha or a Max/Maxine or a Frankie/Francis) and my DH absolutely can't stand it. It's because his elementary school had a vicious bullying problem and having a name like that would have exposed any kid to a lot of cruelty, and he's really afraid of exposing his child to the same kinds of bullying he experienced.

I do think sometimes you can tell who had the most pull in a name choice, but usually only because I know the couple well and can read their expressions and attitudes about it. But also most people I know broadly agree on their kids names and didn't have some fight over it.

First baby I (mother) did; second baby he (father did) and I’m still not thrilled with the name but baby has a great unrelated nickname that I push and everyone calls baby by nickname.

I got to decide her first name and he got to decide her middle name. He was still suggesting options while they were checking to see if I was far enough dilated to be able to push. At that point I just nodded yes to everything.

My brother reused to call me what my adoptive parents had decided on. He won and they went with his name for me. His was better!

I remember a coworker named his daughter Kendall and it was obvious that he had picked it out. He was the kind of guy who badly wanted a son.
I have two boys with the same names as Frasier characters which my husband didn't figure out until he finally saw the show last year.

We picked names jointly (we have twins). We had two long car rides when we were expecting and we threw a bunch of names onto a list, ones that we each picked and then we went through and added names we both thought were okay from the SSA names lists. On the car ride, we went and culled the list down to about 40 names. I printed out two copies and we each labeled the names with A (really like), B (I'd be happy with this choice, but not my first choice), and C (it's an okay name, but I really rather not). We had four names that were double-A's. About a week before they came, we actually picked two of those four names and that's what we named them. We both love both names. And what's better, the kids love their names, everyone is happy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won on the first two girls. He won on the third and that's why you have a fourth Isabella in your child's class. I basically hate her name.

WTH? Isabella isn't actually that common, PP. You need to chill out.

I don’t need to chill out. I can’t stand the name. I’m allowed to have an opinion.

Mom. One of the benefits of being a single mom by choice.

Also most of the SMBC kids I know have the kind of names where every mom says “oh that was at the top of my list, but DH didn’t like it.” A little bit unusual, a little bit old fashioned, just outside the top 100, but not super out there.